IPL 2019, Match 4, Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab- Match Preview

The 12^th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) got underway yesterday and it was the Chennai Super Kings who won the opener against the Royal Challengers Bangalore quite convincingly by 7 wickets. The Rajasthan Royals are all set to begin their campaign with a home match against the Kings XI Punjab tomorrow. Both teams have been underachievers in the tournament and will look to get off to a good start.

Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural edition in 2008. Since then, RR has failed to gel as a unit which has hampered their progress in the tournament. On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab got off to a terrific start last year. They won 5 of their first 6 games and looked well set to finish at the top 2. However, a horrendous performance towards the business end cost them as they were eventually knocked out of the tournament after losing their last group game against the Chennai Super Kings.

Rajasthan has some exceptional foreign players in their ranks who will look to contribute in a winning cause. The presence of players like Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith will definitely make them a strong unit this year. Their bowling unit will be led by Jofra Archer and Jaydev Unadkat. The left-arm pacer might well be the difference for Rajasthan as he was for Rising Pune Supergiant a couple of years ago.

Kings XI Punjab will have relied heavily on their openers Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. Rahul had a terrific season last year and was the leading run scorer for Kings XI Punjab. Their bowling department has some impressive youngsters. With less than 24 hours from the start of the 4^th game of the tournament, both teams will be gearing up for their opening game.

Date & Venue:

March 25 (Monday) at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur

Predicted XI:

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson,  Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat

Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, David Miller, Moises Henriques, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sam Curran, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ankit Rajpoot

IPL head to head:

Matches played: 17 Rajasthan Royals -10, Kings XI Punjab- 7

Weather Conditions:

Temperature in Jaipur will hover from 32 degrees to 18 degrees. Given it is an 8 pm start, the conditions should be cool and a breeze is expected to blow around. It should be a good day for cricket. No rains are expected for the match. Hence it should be a crackerjack of a contest.

Pitch Conditions:

Last year experts and players alike were surprised with the sort of pitches which was on display in Jaipur. This year the trend might change and we might see it becoming a high scoring venue. But as it will be the first game in the stadium, players from both teams will take their time to get going and get acclimatised to the pitch conditions.

Where to Watch:

The match will be streamed on Hotstar which is the official partner of the Indian Premier League. All matches can be viewed here. However, the normal subscribers can watch the telecast 5 minutes late. However, a prime customer will enjoy the match live. If you are a reliance Jio Subscriber you can watch the march on Jio TV without any extra tariff.

Apart from the online providers, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 3, Star Sports 3 HD and Star Sports 1 Bengali will show the live telecast of all the IPL matches.

Match Prediction:

Both Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have some stalwarts in their ranks and look quite even on papers. However personally I feel, Rajasthan Royals have an upper hand on Punjab due to some exceptional power hitters and foreigners in their ranks. Hence my prediction is in favour of the hosts.